James Adonis is one of Australia's best-known people-management thinkers

Think of the best boss you’ve ever had. If you could choose just one word to describe that person, what would that word be?

Several months ago, I hired independent research company Galaxy Research to pose that question to more than 1000 people over the phone. The respondents weren’t given a menu of options to choose from, and didn't have to list reasons. Instead, they were free to select any word from their own vocabulary that most accurately encapsulated their best boss.

The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

The research resulted in a wide range of words. There were the obvious, such as ‘inspirational’ and ‘trusting’; the unexpected, such as ‘intimidating’ and ‘cheap’; the vague, such as ‘great’ and ‘normal’; the political, such as ‘unionist’ and ‘liberal’; and the unusual, such as ‘Christian’ and ‘Irish’.

Here are the top five most popular characteristics - and examples of a few academic studies for those who have yet to be convinced. (To download the full report, click here.)

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1. Fair

So, this is in top spot. A fair boss is a best boss. But how do people determine what’s fair and what’s not?

Researchers at New Zealand University ran an experiment in which participants were told that two equally deserving patients had to share one dialysis machine. Then, the participants were given a letter by the CEO dictating how much time they had to allocate to each patient. Afterwards, they rated the CEO’s fairness.

In some cases, the participants were told that both patients were lifelong New Zealanders, but in other cases they were told that one of the patients was a recent immigrant.

When both patients were kiwis, the CEO was deemed to be fair when he equally distributed the patients’ time on the machine. But when one of the patients was a foreigner, the CEO was rated as unfair if he asked for the amount of time to be distributed equally.

What this indicates is that people’s perception of fairness is heavily influenced by how much they personally benefit – or by how much the ‘in-group’ of which they’re a member benefits – from a decision.

And that’s not really fair.

2. Compassionate

Some leaders, especially those new to the job, assume that compassion becomes less necessary the higher up they progress on the corporate ladder. Not so.

When the Johnson Graduate School of Management ran a survey of Fortune 1000 executives, they discovered compassion was perceived as a vital ingredient for leadership success. It even beat other attributes, such as competitiveness and intelligence, as the characteristic that organisations needed for the future. Team building was the only one that scored higher.

3. Understanding

In their book Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe posit that many of us confuse knowledge with understanding. Just because we know someone doesn’t mean we understand them.

Empathy is a core part of understanding, and in fascinating research conducted by a trio of American universities (Northwestern, New York, and Stanford), the researchers wanted to see how much empathy was present in people who hold positions of power.

They ran a series of experiments, one of which involved showing people images of faces that expressed one of four emotions: happiness, fear, anger, or sadness. The participants were then asked to state which emotion was being expressed.

The outcome revealed that powerful people were less able to detect others’ emotions and were subsequently less likely to be empathetic. In their report, the researchers concluded that people with power had “a reduced tendency to comprehend how others see the world, how others think about the world, and how others feel about the world”.

4. Honest

Closely linked to honesty is a management theory known as ‘self-concept maintenance’. It describes the actions of people who behave dishonestly enough to gain an advantage of some sort, while simultaneously acting honestly enough in other areas to delude themselves into thinking they’re a person of integrity.

It raises the ethical question: is it OK to lie sometimes? Some would say that, yes, it’s fine to lie at work so long as there’s an overall net benefit to the organisation. Others, of course, would disagree. One of those would be Socrates, the moral philosopher: “The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” And that would be honest.

5. Supportive

The benefits of a supportive boss were demonstrated in a 20-year study at Tel Aviv University. The researchers wanted to find out whether an unsupportive workplace was more likely to contribute to an employee’s death. In particular, they looked at the degree to which employees could say their supervisor helps them solve problems and the extent to which they’re available for consultation.

The results showed that people who felt as though they had minimal support at work were twice as likely to die than their well-supported colleagues.

Over to you. What word would you use to describe the best boss you've ever had?

18 comments so far

Happy! From that internal happiness came an external glow that descended over the whole team like a warm blanket. It didn't matter if times were good or bad, the internal happiness of this jolly Scotsman was effusive.

Commenter

OpenWindow

Location

Richmond VIC

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 11:18AM

Empathy and compassion are important but it needs a minimum level of intelligence otherwise you'll end up in a situation that occurred to me where all respect for the boss was lost as he maintained the corporate line. The world required a better level of operational service but he maintained the, old 1970's, corporate mantra of sales focus. Even after evidence and explanations were given to him he would not change. Even though he was sales focussed the sales area was the first to lose respect and then the rest. He and his advisor were totally oblivious as they still pushed the same barrow. With a minimum of intelligence and an advisor who had open eyes he would have rode the increase in performance that came with the change in focus. They had their opportunity but couldn't see it.

Commenter

Don't Know

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 11:37AM

I would vote compassionate followed by fair. To be honest, the best boss I ever had exhibited all of those characteristics.

Commenter

Timbo

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 11:47AM

I think I've had more good bosses than bad. The very best were active listeners.The very worst were (among many poor traits), active talkers.

Commenter

David

Location

Vermont

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 1:25PM

I'm a boss so this is interesting, having 30 employees is really quite hard work, if i am not constantly a better human being then the Pope i am a bully. If i don't have an interest in every minute drama of every persons life i am not compassionate, if i don't agree to pay for scans and surgeries for fake work injuries that happened while playing footy i'm uncaring and greedy. If i ask people to do something straight away i should do it myself, you know, i am not paying people to really work, just look like they are. Lucky all my chinese products don't complain when i open the container doors.

Commenter

Alex

Location

Sydney

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 2:18PM

Spot on! If you want to work then bloody work! If you want to whine and whinge then get a therapist! Gave up employing 'workers' years ago and I have never been happier :-)

Commenter

Argus Tuft

Location

LaLaLand

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 4:07PM

I empathise Alex.My personal watchword is "Integrity". If I say something, I mean it. I do not tolerate workplace bullying or rumours about other staff. If I am told something in confidence, it stays confidential.

I was a supervisior in my previous company (am in the present too!). Funny how some staff always managed to go sick when we were really busy. We were often very quiet and many staff were given 'self-development' opportunities at company expense to keep them busy and on the payroll.

Some of these people then had a big whine when things did get busy and they were sent (as per their contract) interstate short-term to actually do some work. I was then labled an a$$hole boss because I asked people to work within their contact.

It also didn't help that a charismatic woman who was friends with the owners wife was after my job. This woman underminded me at every turn but the difficulty was in getting other staff to dob her in.

Eventually, I left for a better job and she took my role. SHE became the one that had to get people to work in unpopular locations and (funny how the wheel turns) was undermind by another ambitious wannabe. New management took over and she was sacked for incompetance.

She applied for a position at my new company in a supervisory role, only to be rejected after I gave a character reference. Karma I suppose.

Commenter

Smiley

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 6:13PM

All of the categories (fair, compassionate etc.) come with an overriding caveat, it requires that employees

'Don't take the piss'

That being said, there is a detestable arrogance in a lot of self-made man(agers). As they say a self made man worships his creator

Commenter

El Diablo

Location

Melb

Date and time

July 07, 2012, 12:13PM

I have had bad and good bosses. There were more good bosses than bad bosses, however none was perfect (I am not saying there is/are perfect boss(es)).

My bad bosses were when I worked as a process worker during school holidays to earn money. These bosses were just foul regardless of any reasoning. Perhaps, that's why they were that those jobs in the first place. Anyway, these situations were stepping stones.

In professional careers, although a number of the bosses were very nice, they were incompetent or not doing much. For work, I considered them as bad bosses.

The good bosses were those who knew their work, were fair and clear. Although their personalities were average, I enjoyed working with them.

Commenter

DD

Location

NSW

Date and time

July 06, 2012, 2:51PM

Fair, Compassionate, Understanding, Honest & Supportive - I would describe my boss of 20 years plus as having all these attributes. They all play a part. My work environment has always been a happy haven. He has always shown the same face to all his staff. When I listen to others talk about their workplace personalities that they have to deal with - I silently say thank-you. I got lucky...